MetaTrader 4 Demo Tutorial

This post is also available in: Indonesia Português العربية

In case you have ever tried to search for a platform best suited for foreign exchange beginners there is no doubt you are familiar with MT4. Most Forex brokers provide this famous trading platform, which also goes by MetaTrader 4, apart from a handful. However, you first need to know how to trade on MetaTrader 4.

You might be here for a number of reasons. Perhaps to be an MT4 foreign exchange amateur or to simply know how to place a trade in MT4. And it’s your lucky day since you are in the right place. Our experts have set aside a comprehensive guide to assist you in learning Forex with MetaTrader 4 tutorial for understanding MT4 and a smooth transition in the trading environment. The tutorial will also show you how to trade on MetaTrader 4.

Metatrader 4 Availability and Design

MT4: Availability and Design

Let us refresh your mind. MetaQuotes Software Corporation developed MetaTrader 4 more than a decade ago. Years later, most Forex traders still favour it as their retail MetaTrader 4 trade option. This is highly attributed to the platform’s hand in backing automated trading solutions advancement and its easy-to-understand interface.

You have the ability to access or download the MT4 field with the help of the MetaTrader 4 tutorial from any CFD/foreign exchange brokers providing the platform. Most Forex brokers like FXTM give free demo accounts to help you kickstart trading on MetaTrader 4.

While you may find the same MT4 download link on the MetaQuotes website that also comes with $10,000 for creating the demo account, it has been found that when you click the link, you actually download the MT5 trading platform.

Although whether or not MT5 is better than MT4 has never been confirmed, MetaQuotes continues to work in such a manner to promote its latest version of Metatrader 4.

We have used the FXTM MetaTrader 4 tutorial and demo account in our guide. To get a deeper and more realistic experience, we recommend that you create a $10,000 MetaTrader 4 demo account. The tutorial will give you guidance on how to trade on MT4 by setting up an account once you have installed it. We shall then discuss the account’s functionalities.

Is MetaTrader 4 Good for Beginners?

Many Forex experts advise beginners to start MetaTrader 4 trading after learning the MetaTrader 4 tutorial and understanding MetaTrader 4. This agile environment facilitates safe practice through our beginners’ guide on how to place a trade in MT4. The incredible features on the interface help you enhance your trading skills to start operating like a pro. Check out some of MT4’s greatest strengths you can take advantage of for a better understanding of MT4.

  • MetaTrader free demo mode lets you learn how to use mt4 step by step at your own pace. Always refer to the MT4 tutorial.
  • The graphics are easy to read, so you can master technical analysis more quickly.
  • Both technical and fundamental approaches are supported (indicators access to news), so you can choose a comfortable system.
  • A rich set of resources including Expert Advisors are available in the official community dedicated to MQL4.
  • Universal compatibility lets you place an mt4 trade on a PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, as the program supports all popular OS: desktop, mobile, and web-based.
  • Copy-trading lets you learn by mirroring the strategies of experienced users.

How to Set up MetaTrader 4: Installing and Launching the Trading Account 

The first step on how to set up MT4 is to download the MT4 trading program on your device, as you can see on our MetaTrader 4 tutorial below, and then proceed with its installation as per the instructions. You can always save the program in any folder of your preference. Run the installation and once completed, click finish. Then you will see the MetaTrader trading platform load automatically. Select the demo that comes on your server and go to the next step.

Installing and Setting Up the Metatrader 4

If you got your MetaTrader platform directly from a broker, an email would be sent to you containing the account number and any other details in regards to the program. 

Put in the details and click the autosave option to be able to log in to the MetaTrader trading without any fuss next time.

Your MetaTrade 4 platform

You now have your MT4 platform set for trading. When you closely look at it, the platform appears intricate. However, when you begin operations, the program is quite uncomplicated, as you shall see below.

Metatrader 4 Sections

MT4 Sections: How to Trade on MetaTrader 4

MetaTrader 4 platform consists of 6 sections. To help you easily identify them, we have used different colours to mark each section as shown here: MarketWatch (green), Menu (red), Chart Workspace (yellow), Toolbar (apricot), Terminus (purple), and Navigator (teal).

a. The Start Menu

You can access all MT4 services on the menu. To save you time, we will show you the most effective options for MT4 in this demo account tutorial, which naturally will help you know how to place a trade in MT4.

b. Toolbar

The toolbar allows you to access options traders often seek, such as technical tools, appearance modification, and timeframe on MetaTrader 4 trading.

c. Market Watch

On MarketWatch, you can access a range of assets available and customize the ones you want on your platform. When you right-click on Specifications you will see the assets in detail. Specifications allow you to see the charged rates and overnight positions. Traders usually ignore this tool on the MT4 platform since most brokers fail to mention it.

d. Navigator

The navigator allows you to access scripts, indicators and installed EAs.

e. Terminal

Terminal shows your account’s history, trading activities, and exposure on your profile as well as making it possible to manage open positions. On the news tab, you can see live articles related to the market and open events. The Market also allows you to riffle through third-party add-ons.

f. Chart Workplace

Operations of all technical analyses take place here. Additionally, you can customize the chart workplace and save the template.

Simplifying Your User Experience on Metatrader 4

Simplifying Your User Experience on MT4

The default display on the Toolbar shows two rows. The 1st one consists of a Table and Standard, while the other one comprises Timeframes and Line Studies. You can click on the Toolbar to see the names. You can boost the Table Workspace by connecting the bottom two and the first two to the same level.

And because you are dealing with a single account, for now, you don’t have to turn on the Nautical. You can still easily access it when you click the Navigator icon on the Toolbar.

To expand the contracted asset list, flicker your cursor, click on the MarketWatch, and select Show All. You can display your balance account by clicking on the Trade accessible in the Terminal. Moreover, you will see all open trades here as well.

This is how your MetaTrader 4 terminal should appear once you follow all these steps:

your MetaTrader 4 trading terminal

How to Use MetaTrader 4 with Graphs

This is where you will spend most of your trading time in the MT4 terminal. Although MetaTrader 4 trading has four charts, as a novice, you only need to start with one. Click on the corresponding Toolbar icon to magnify the charts in tiles or to organize multiples of them. You can right-click on the preferred asset in the MarketWatch area and choose the Charts Window to open a new chart.

MetaTrader 4 will then add the chart and display it at the bottom of the Chart Workspace section without fail, as indicated in the red rectangle below.

How to Use Metatrader 4 with Charts

MetaTrader 4 Two-Step Chart Custom Layout

Place the cursor within the chart and right-click. Once you see a dialogue box, select the properties or press F8 to simplify the process.

MetaTrader 4 Two-Step Chart Layout Customization

A property window that pops contains Common and Colours. With these properties, you can create and customize your chart. Try to experiment with various options and choose the style that best suits you.

pops contains Common and Colours

The window that appears consists of common colours. Create and customize your chart using these properties. Again, experiment with different options and choose the style you prefer with properties containing common colours as well.

In our guide, we will refer to the layout customization image below. Right-click on the chart to save it. Click on the Template and proceed to the saving option. Save the Template in the folder you had previously chosen.

MT4 Click on Template and go to Save Template

An important reminder is to save the template to Default.tpl. This way, you can access the template automatically when you open a new chart. To go back to default MetaTrader 4 trading settings, click on Reset.

Tips and Tricks When Using MetaTrader 4 Charts

During your operations on MT4 charts, you will easily want to analyze your assets efficiently. Therefore, you need Hotkeys and Toolbar to facilitate your navigation.

For fast adjustments during assets analysis, items like Timeframes, Tables, and Line Studies come in handy. While using MetaTrader 4, look at these elements closely.

Tips and Tricks When Working With MT4 Charts

a. Tables (red)

At the table, traders can customize the visual display, access indicators list, select timeframes, zoom, shift, handle guides, as well as arrange their assets.

b. Line Studies (green)

You can opt for crosshair, other than the default cursor. This way, you can easily pinpoint by gauging the stretch between the two charts. To highlight the endpoint, left-click on the mouse and long-press. On the display, you will see the number of candlesticks, last value, and pips distance. Line Studies also help when drawing horizontal, vertical, and tradelines, as well as labelling charts, and adding Fibonacci Retracement sequences.

c. Time Frames (orange)

On the Time Frames, you can access nine and operate through them without a hitch. Besides, with your MT4 account, you can get a number of them on different charts.

Take advantage of the free MT4 demo account. After all, practice makes perfect so keep on experimenting to polish your skills. The Toolbar will avail hotkeys and other functionalities. Hotkeys are important in modification of the charts and speeding up your navigation. Additionally, the more you analyze various assets, the more you will appreciate the task. Below are some hotkeys from the MetaQuotes website.

MT4 hot keys

How to Use MetaTrader 4 with Indicators

First off, you need to understand the foundation of assets analysis with indicators and order placement. You can do this through a bunch of technical indicators available. While some are placed directly into the chart, others go below it.

You can easily access the indicators through the Menu setting by choosing the Insert option. Another alternative is to use Navigator, as marked with the red rectangle below.

How to Use Meta Trader 4 with Indicators

As shown in our example, we have selected the Commodity Channel Index.

MT4 Commodity Channel Index indicator

You will see settings in the dialogue box popping out for every indicator you choose. Click OK to add the indicator.

MT4 Commodity Channel Index indicator OK

We have drawn the Fibonacci Retracement Fan sequence using an identical tab from the Toolbar. Take a look at it. Also included is a Simple Moving Average indicator.

Fibonacci Retracement Fan

If you decide to delete the indicator, just right-click on it. A prompt similar to this will pop up:

MT4 delete the indicator

How to Place Trade Orders in Metatrader 4

Knowing how to place trade orders is quite easy and you have four options to choose from. Though you have access to advanced trading options in the order windows, the best pick would be the one-click trading choice.

To place orders, you have three available alternatives. Click on the New Trade option in the Toolbar marked in red, on the MarketWatch on the selected asset, or press F9. Again, you can click on the triangle orange square near the asset name.

How to Place Trade Orders in Metatrader 4

The main differences between placing an order via the order window and through a single-click trading icon are that in the former, you can initiate a stop loss and take profit and also leave a comment.

main differences between placing an order

MT4 account also allows you to place pending orders. Simply change the Type (red), and then you will witness a change in the order window, after which you can choose the order type and the price level (orange). Click on Place to display the pending order in the Terminal (green). You can delete the order when you click the X button (blue). As you can see in our case, the Market moved fast and triggered our pending order.

MT4 place pending orders

See the snapshot to get an in-depth understanding of each type of pending orders as listed on the Meta Quotes website:

listed on the MetaQuotes

After executing your market order, a confirmation is sent to you, and the position shown within the Terminal (red rectangle).

MT4 executing your market order

Metatrader 4 Portfolio Management

The central part of your trading activities is portfolio management. You can execute it from the Terminal icon in the Trade and Account History tab.

If you want to close your active trades, you can click on the x button (red rectangle). Because it is your first-time trading, you will see a confirmation pop up to confirm if you would like to go ahead to shut down the trades or not (orange rectangle).

one-clik trading terms MT4

To customize open positions double-click on the order you wish to modify in the Terminal. You will then see an order window displayed. Flicker to the Type option and click on Modify Order (red). You can then reshape your order (orange) by adding stop-loss and taking the profit. You can accomplish this by choosing the distance in pips or picking the price on Level, pressing Copy as, and then completing with Modify.

customize open positions

As shown in the image below, you can see the updated stop-loss and take profit levels (red rectangle).

Read more about:

Forex Terms – Discover 60 Most Important terms. Every Trader Should Know
MT4 updated stop loss

Hover on the Account History tab found in the Terminal (red rectangle) to display and view all the details of the closed trades. In the image below, we closed the open trades, hence unshaded manually exited trades. We closed the positions through stop-loss and we shaded the take gains in red and green, respectively. Although it doesn’t display the profitability of the closed trades, you can see it under the Profit column.

Account History MT4

How to use strategy tester in mt4

M4 strategy tester’s primary role involves testing automated systems known as expert advisors. The testing creates a way of analyzing a trading system’s validity and optimizing its performance. Some of the steps used in this tool include:  

Step 1: Launch the MT4 desktop application. 

Step 2: On the MT4 desktop platform, choose View > Strategy Tester

Step 2: On the MT4 desktop platform, choose View > Strategy Tester

Worry no more, if you don’t have a professional advisor to give guidance on the strategy tester in MT4. You can check out the free samples the platform comes with, the MACD, and Moving Average.

Go to https://www.mql5.com/en/market/mt4 to add a free EA fast. Click the Free tab to access the featured free EAs.We found the Trend Scalp EA here

Here we found the Trend Scalp EA

Proceed to the Download button and click. You will see the site ask whether MT4 was successfully installed on the computer, and another prompt to launch it, which automatically adds the EA.

Step 3: Select the preferred Expert Advisor. 

Step 3: Select the preferred Expert Advisor

Step 4: Configure other parameters, for example, changing the symbol, analysis method, date ranges, expert properties, etc.Step 5: Select the Start button once ready. The Strategy tester will analyze the markets by applying the EA’s trading strategies.
Step 6: Using the bottom navigation toolbar, view the strategy’s performance. You may also view optimization results, graphs, results of various trades, etc.

Step 6: View the strategy’s performance by using the bottom navigation toolbar

How to take partial profit in mt4

Don’t want to close a profitable open position but want to lock in part of the profits? Taking partial profit in MT4 only takes three steps: 

Step 1: Double click the open trade from the terminal to launch the Order execution window. 

Step 2: Change the Volume. For instance, if the volume was 1 lot and you wish to half the position, change the value to 0.5.

Step 3: Select Close. That’s all. 

Step 3: Select Close

Why Is MetaTrader 4 So Popular?

Traders and brokers have compared MT4 to every other platform released since it. Despite MetaQuotes being a pioneer, its products are nowhere near out-of-date. Therefore, brokers have never found any reason to abandon MT4.

  1. Free 

You can use it on all popular OS without subscriptions.

  1. Comprehensive

The platform supports short and long-term technical and fundamental strategies.

  1. User-friendly

The layout is logically structured and easy to navigate.

  1. Secure

Since MT4 uses strong encryption and prevents DoS attacks, your data and money are well secured.

  1. Compatible

MQL4 allows quick deployment of Expert Advisors, including third-party robots.

  1. Stable

The servers are powerful and can process tens of thousands of trades, all at once.

  1. Lightweight

The program does not put excessive pressure on your hardware.

  1. Customer Service Oriented

The mailbox is your line of real-time communication with the broker 24/7.

  1. Flexible

The interface, including windows, charts, and indicators, is highly customizable.

  1. Designed for Different Accounts

If you have several accounts (e.g., live and demo), switching between them is a breeze.

You can enjoy these impressive benefits of MT4. Over 1,200 brokers around the world recognize the MT4 platform. Make use of our MetaTrader 4 tutorial to join and begin trading on this enormous online community. 

How to use MetaTrader 5?

Read here

FAQs

1. How Do I Use MetaTrader 4?

Confirm if the broker provides MetaTrader and the download links. They may give access to the MT4 web platform, however, the approved method is to learn the desktop platform first.

2. How to Use MT4 as a beginner?

Using the offered MetaTrader 4 demo account from the trading platform of your choice, practice first to learn and have an understanding of its features. The top things to learn include placing a new order, setting a stop loss & take profit, calculating the spreads from Bid & Ask price, opening new charts, and adding indicators.

3. How Do I Use My PC to Trade With MT4?

Get the accurate version of the computer’s OS. Follow the steps in this tutorial for a successful installation.

4. What are the Steps to Update MT4? 

You might see program update alerts show up as notifications in the terminal. The program loads updates in the background, and by restarting the terminal, the MT4 applies the new updates. Likewise, the trading platform may alert its traders to update MT4.

5. How do I install Indicators?

To download and install indicators from MQ15, all you have to do is find the indicator from https://www.mql5.com/en/market/mt4/indicator and select Download. You can then open the indicator in MetaTrader.

To install indicators from other sources, save the indicator where you can easily locate it. On MT4, navigate to File > Open Data Folder > MQL4> Indicators. Copy the custom file to the Indicators folder. Restart the program.

6. How to Take Partial Profit on MT4?

The joy in MetaTrader 4 trading is to take profits. This is only possible after knowing how to place a trade in MT4. To make profits on MT4, you have to select the Trade tab on the MT4 Terminal, choose the live order by right-clicking to Modify or Delete Order, select Market Execution from the Type list, set the amount of volume you want to close, and lastly, choose the close the trade option.
Taking partial profit in MT4 only takes three steps: 
Step 1: Double click the open trade from the terminal to launch the Order execution window. 
Step 2: Change the Volume. For instance, if the volume was 1 lot and you wish to half the position, change the value to 0.5.
Step 3: Select Close. That’s all.

7. Which forex Prime Brokers offer MT4?

Some of the platforms include FBS Broker, XM, and AvaTrade. Check out more forex prime brokers from the Broker’s section.

Click to rate this post!
[Total: 1 Average: 4]

This post is also available in: Indonesia Português العربية

About the author Freddie North

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Check Out Our Latest Articles

>